A wet weekend did not deter attendance at Washington, DC’s National Book Festival on Saturday. The AP says the event has grown from about 30,000 people in 2001 to approximately 120,000 attendees this year. Created by First Lady Laura Bush, the Librarian of Congress’s James Billington is “hopeful it will continue under a new administration. The library, Billington said last week, ‘will be looking to all possible ways’ to perpetuate this ‘unique and popular’ event.” This Washington Post piece focuses on presentations from authors, including Neil Gaiman, Geraldine Brooks, Dionne Warwick, James McBride, and others.Post
Keep Knitting
Putnam has announced that Kate Jacobs’ The Friday Night Knitting Club has over 1 million copies in print after 38 straight weeks on the NYT trade paperback fiction list, with a sequel volume KNIT TWO now setfor publication on November 25. It was just about a year ago that Jacobs’ former agent Barbara Zitwer announced that she would take over the series and write two sequels for Grand Central. At the time, Zitwer told us, “I wanted to create a series and to write the sequels and keep the series growing and Kate very much wanted to write something new […]
On Pikarski, and Other Announcements
Israeli literary agent Ilana Pikarski, 62, passed away suddenly on Friday in Tel Aviv. She led the Pikarski Literary Agency from 1982 and built it into Israel’s largest literary agency. Ziv Lewis writes: “A familiar face at international book fairs, Ilana will be remembered for her strong leadership and character, her passion for literature and for helping to shape the modern Israeli publishing industry to be the vibrant, competitive and high quality market it is today.” At Random UK, the CHA group–comprising Hutchinson, Heinemann, Century, Random House, Arrow and Windmill–will now be called Cornerstone Publishing. According to the announcement, the […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, September 29
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Gaynor Arnold’s Booker Prize longlisted GIRL IN A BLUE DRESS, based […]
Karp on McCain
Twelve publisher and longtime editor of John McCain the author Jonathan Karp writes in Newsweek on “what he’s learned from poring over a decade’s worth of the senator’s manuscripts.” Critics of McCain dismiss these works as an exercise in self-mythology and career advancement; they see in them certain ideals–about rabble-rousing and honor, for example–that they say McCain the candidate has abandoned. But I see them differently–as books in which McCain, as narrator and an occasional character, shows us the way to a nobler purpose. I know from personal experience that John McCain is honorable, kind and wise. (He’s the only […]
Borders Warrants Come Due
The WSJ reminds readers that the next phase of Borders’ loan-shark deal with Pershing Square Capital Management kicks in October 1. If the bookseller does not have a deal to sell the company–which is increasingly unlikely given the state of capital markets–then Pershing Square acquires warrants to buy another 5.15 million shares (or almost 8 percent of the company). For now those warrants are nearly worthless, since they are exercised at $7 a share, which is about the highest Borders stock has traded ever since their disclosure of liquidity pressures earlier this year. Pershing Square is already the company’s biggest […]